IHSW - May Report

I do enjoy it when IHSW comes round and gives me the perfect excuse to hide myself away and do what I want to do.  Of course, there are still the usual weekend jobs to be done, but other than that, it's stitching time!

A slight change to the normal order of things, this is a finish of the first of the floral Delft cards that I am working on for Marie Curie.  I took this with me to the stitching day and finished it off.  It was very much admired by the rest of the group, which gives me hope that I will be able to sell it.

 I've already started on the next one, which is a bluebell design with a different border.  At the moment, I intend to stitch all four pieces and then finish them as cards in a job lot in order to keep them as nice as possible.

The Cat has had most of my time during IHSW, although I could wish that it had progressed further.  It's a very slow piece to stitch, but the deadline for this is 1 August in order to get it framed and to my aunt for her 70th birthday.  Looking at my diary, I have about 10 weeks to play with, so I need to start taking this piece more seriously.

Another three blocks on Carnation and the Lowery stand and I are getting on fine.  This piece will have reached its first anniversary (25 May) before the next update.  I don't remember having any firm plans as to where I would have got to with it by that point, and certainly when I started it, Baby Sophie was not even a twinkle in her mother's eye, so the time lost to the Noah's Ark would definitely not have been factored in!

If you count the part blocks on the right hand side as whole blocks, there are 68 blocks left on Page 2.  If I can keep up stitching at 3 blocks a week, there are 23 weeks work left on this page.  According to my diary, this post is the update for week 20 of 2012.  The update for week 43 is due on 28 October, the official end of British Summer Time, so that's my target for finishing Page 2!

In other news, my car had to have a new radiator this week.  I had been having coolant issues and as it was due for its MOT this month, I decided just to get it sorted.  Just over £250 later, it has passed its MOT and no longer has a cracked radiator.  Also just to let you know, next week's update may not appear until Monday.  My parents are opening their garden for charity next weekend, along with other residents of their street, and muggins here will be running the tombola in their front garden both days.  Depending on how things go, I may not have enough brain left to post on Sunday.